1. Technical Field
One or more embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to facilitating communications over a network. More specifically, one or more embodiments disclosed herein relate to customizing a network-based communication system.
2. Background and Relevant Art
Advances in electronic communication technologies have interconnected people and allowed for better communication than ever before. To illustrate, users traditionally relied on a public switched telephone network (“PSTN”) to speak with other users in real-time. Now, users may communicate using network-based or Internet-based communication systems. One such network-based system is an Internet Protocol (“IP”) telephone system, such as a voice over IP (“VoIP”) communication system.
Conventional network-based communication systems commonly rely on a central datacenter to provide communication services for each network device. For example, the central datacenter can provide VoIP services, such as facilitating VoIP communication sessions (e.g., voice and video calls), to one or more network devices. In addition, in many conventional network-based communication systems a backup datacenter provides an available option to restore the communication services in the event the central datacenter fails (e.g., network failure, hardware failure, datacenter maintenance).
A number of disadvantages exist with respect to conventional network-based communication systems. For example, in many conventional network-based communication systems, the majority, if not all, of the network devices connect to the central datacenter using a single connection address. For instance, when a network device is first powered on or initiated, the network device queries the network-based system for the connection address to the central datacenter. Once the network device connects to the central datacenter using the connection address, the network-based system can register the network device and provide communication services to the network device. This process is generally repeated for each network device that registers with the system, or in other words, each network device connects to the central database using the same connection address.
Due, at least in part, to multiple network devices connecting to the central datacenter using the same connection address, the variety of network-level settings the central datacenter provides with respect to each network device can be limited. For example, a typical datacenter may configure many network-level settings at a connection address level. For example, network-level settings may include signaling protocol settings, such as the amount of time a retry timer runs before expiring, or the number of retry attempts before a network device times out. As such, each network device connected to the central datacenter using the connection address may share the same network-level settings.
Not all types of network devices, however, operate equally given a single defined set of network-level settings. For instance, network device types can include fixed-line network devices, Wi-Fi network devices, satellite network devices, mobile devices, etc. As an example, a each of the network device types can operate optimally with a specific retry timer time that corresponds to the specific network device type. Unfortunately, in conventional network-based communication systems, only one retry timer time can be set for all network devices connected using the connection address. Thus, in many conventional network-based communication systems, individual network devices operate using network configuration settings that are not optimal for each individual network device.
An additional disadvantage with network-level settings being defined at the connection level is that each network device connected using the single connection address receives identical identification information from the central datacenter. However, in many conventional network-based communication systems, oftentimes there is more than one entity selling communication services provided by the same central datacenter, each desiring to send customized identification information to customers. For example, a conventional network-based communication system provider (hereafter “system provider”) often licenses communication services to third-party white label entities (e.g., a company that sales communication services that the company does not provide itself). In other words, the system provider allows the white label entity to sell communication services provided by the central datacenter.
In particular, customers often view a system provider and a white label entity as competitors. As such, confusion may result if a customer purchases communication services from a white label entity, but instead sees the system provider brand in the datacenter identification information provided in connection with the customer's communication services. For example, network devices can display branding information, often in the form of a hostname. As such, customer confusion may result when a customer sees the system provider's hostname on their network device, when in fact, the customer contracted with a white label entity. In addition, a customer discovering that they are actually contracting with a white label entity, rather than the system provider, may prompt questions, require increased customer service, and potentially a lead to a lost customer for the white label entity. For example, the customer may decide to directly subscribe to the system provider to receive the same communication services.
In an attempt to solve the white-label branding issue, many conventional network-based communication systems use a generic hostname. However, a generic hostname itself may lead to an increase in customer confusion. In addition, the generic hostname solution suffers the drawback that neither the system provider nor the white label entity can identify their brand with the hostname. Furthermore, to maximize the profit, many system providers generally license communications services to several white-label entities so as to utilize system resources as fully as possible. However, as the number of white labels increase, and as customer numbers increase, the lack of branding issue magnifies.
In addition to the branding disadvantage, conventional network-based communication systems may be more prone to security attacks. For example, because every network device is connected to the central datacenter using a single connection address, an attack on the central datacenter may halt all communications over the connection address. For instance, a denial of service attack to the connection address blocks the datacenter from providing communication services to any network device connected to the datacenter.
Accordingly, there are a number of considerations to be made in improving the customizing network-level settings provided to a network device on a network-based communication system.